Ben Folds and Black Holes

“Somewhere in the universe two black holes collide — as heavy as stars, as small as cities…”

To the majority of us, writing music and reading about astronomy are both equally perplexing, but to Ben Folds, it’s just another day on the job. While performing at the Beacon Theater in New York in 2016, Folds pulled out a book given to him by his friend, NY Times writer, Maria Popova. He’d never read the book and only knows of a single passage marked by Popova.

During his live performance, Ben Folds and his yMusic sextet, create an original tune and set author Jenna Levin’s words to the music. While the song itself is actually quite good for a first pass, the most inspiring and intriguing part of the video is the creation of the tune itself.

I’ll admit, I’m someone who can write music, but it certainly doesn’t come as easy as it does to Ben Folds and his crew onstage… in front of a crowd… at his concert…. Watch for yourself, it’s well worth it!

“Somewhere in the universe two black holes collide — as heavy as stars, as small as cities, literally black (the complete absence of light) holes (empty hollows). Tethered by gravity, in their final seconds together the black holes course through thousands of revolutions about their eventual point of contact, churning up space and time until they crash and merge into one bigger black hole, an event more powerful than any since the origin of the universe, outputting more than a trillion times the power of a billion Suns. The black holes collide in complete darkness. None of the energy exploding from the collision comes out as light. No telescope will ever see the event.”